Woodbine Farm owners Vanessa and Jay Sprague hoped to be able to hold events on up to 12 weekends a year in their large barn, in part to offset the costs of maintaining the historic structure.
However, their proposal for a wedding and small-event venue didn’t find traction with the Jaffrey Zoning Board of Adjustment, which denied the variance needed to hold the events in their barn Thursday.
Multiple neighbors objected on grounds of potential noise, traffic and the impact of the first commercial business on the street changing the nature of the neighborhood, but the board ultimately wasn’t convinced by those arguments. However, board members concluded there wasn’t anything unique about the property that requires a variance to make use of it.
The Spragues proposed to use their barn as a venue for luncheons, conferences, events and weddings of up to 65 people and 25 cars. They emphasized they had spoken with neighbors about potential concerns, and had laid out their plan with those concerns in mind.
Parking and portable toilets and a gathering space for guests would have all been behind the house and barn, not visible from the road. Music would have been played inside the barn and not outside, and there would have been no fireworks allowed. Music would have been shut off by 10 p.m. and all events would have ended by 11 p.m.
“We’ve welcomed the street’s feedback on this,” Jay Sprague said.
The events, the Spragues said, would have helped offset the cost of maintaining their historic 4,000-square-foot barn. Jay Sprague cited a $150,000 estimate to replace the roof with similar materials as an example of how costly keeping the building maintained could be.
Attorney Joseph Hoppock, representing neighbors of the Spragues, argued that there are no commercial facilities in the surrounding area of Thorndike Pond Road, “whatsoever.”
“When you have mixed uses, the character fo the neighborhood changes,” Hoppock said. “The public interest is to deny this variance.”
“This is just not appropriate for that road,” agreed attorney Jason Reimers, representing Janet Grant of Thorndike Pond Road. He noted that there were other large and historic barns in the neighborhood, and nothing intrinsically unique about the Spragues’ property.
Tanya Short of Dublin Road, who is not an abutter, but lives only a few hundred feet from the barn, said the situation between her house and the barn causes it to act like a “boombox,” and noted that when the Spragues held their own wedding on the property, she could clearly hear the music.
“I couldn’t sleep. I could have danced in my bedroom,” Short said, adding that when she bought her property, she did so hoping to eventually use it to raise horses, and she feared the noise from wedding parties would be a disturbance to them.
The board continued the public hearing on the issue from its Dec. 7 meeting, to schedule a site visit on the farm on Thursday, which they immediately followed with deliberations. After touring the property and hearing the Spragues’ proposal, the majority found that the Spragues had made reasonable accommodations to alleviate most of the concerns of the neighbors by limiting the number of events, the number of people allowed at those events and other restrictions.
“Personally, I think it’s a wonderful endeavor, and they’ve gone out of their way to accommodate their neighbors,” ZBA member Walter Batchelder said. “Unfortunately, my personal opinions don’t get a vote.”
There are five criteria that a proposal must meet to qualify for a variance: that it is not against the public interest, that it is within the spirit of the zoning ordinance, that granting the variance provides substantial justice, that it will not impact property values and that there is a hardship that granting the variance would alleviate.
The board voted individually on each criteria, and denied the variance only on the last point. Members noted there was no individual characteristic of the property that was unique that required a variance to allow use of the barn. Financial hardship is not a qualifying factor, the board explained to the Spragues.
The board agreed unanimously, 5-0, that the variance request didn’t meet the hardship standard, and voted unanimously to deny the variance.
Ashley Saari can be reached at 924-7172 ext. 244 or asaari@ledgertranscript.com. She’s on Twitter @AshleySaariMLT.